Beatles 'Let It Be' director drops hints about DVD's release date

In an appearance Monday on the radio program "Soundcheck" heard on WNYC-FM, "Let It Be" director Michael Lindsay-Hogg, promoting his book "Luck and Circumstance: A Coming of Age in Hollywood, New York, and Points Beyond," gave something real to those wishing and hoping for the film to be released on DVD.

In answer to a caller's question, Lindsay-Hogg recalled a past meeting talking about the film with Beatle Paul McCartney and, more importantly, gave a timetable for its release on DVD.

"We bumped into each other on an airplane. It was just before George Harrison died. George was very ill. And George had not had a happy time during the making of 'Let It Be.' For personal reasons. He was about to go out on his own and a lot of other things like that. And we knew it probably would not be re-released in George's lifetime. But, we have been been working on it pretty much every year for the last couple of years. And the plan is, at the moment, to have it come out, I think, in 2013.

"This is after they release 'Magical Mystery Tour' as a special DVD release. And it'll be the film itself, the original film -- the color's great, the soundtrack is perfect -- with a No. 2 DVD which will be a documentary about the making of the documentary ('Let It Be')."

He says that second disc will be filled with the film's outtakes.

"When we first put 'Let It Be' out, I had to cut out a lot of stuff that I really like and wanted to stay in there. The stuff in the new DVD has a lot of the stuff that had to be cut out. So for me, it's like the egg is now complete."

Besides "Let It Be," in the interview, Lindsay-Hogg talks about his work on the landmark British music show "Ready, Steady Go!" and on the Rolling Stones film, "Rock and Roll Circus." About the latter film, he said film cannisters for it languished in a bathroom, then in pianist Ian Stewart's barn before the film finally was released.

You can (and should) hear or download the entire interview at http://www.wnyc.org/shows/soundcheck/2011/oct/17/father-music-video/, where you can also see a video clip from "Ready Steady Go" with the Rolling Stones doing "Paint It Black" that's discussed in the interview.

(Thanks to Mike Rapsis.)

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